Ok I am going to say it, this is VERY impressive. Hat off to your technical abilities Boubul.

Now if one of you can package this in a consumer friendly way which us non-geeks can understand and use it will be great. Willing to compensate.

10 minutes ago, lancelot said:

Ok I am going to say it, this is VERY impressive. Hat off to your technical abilities Boubul.

Now if one of you can package this in a consumer friendly way which us non-geeks can understand and use it will be great. Willing to compensate.

Hahaha, I would look at packaging this in the near future. 

First need to ensure that it runs the way it should and then ensure it is "fool proof".

 

5 hours ago, Bloubul7 said:

Web interface sorted.  I can now remotely alter my inverter settings.

Next I want to integrate the settings into my automation flows.  This would essentially allow me to run two seperate sets of settings, Loadshedding vs No loadshedding.  The load shedding settings can be triggered by a webhook and will ensure that the battery charging is prioritized when loadshedding is active.

 

1 hour ago, lancelot said:

Ok I am going to say it, this is VERY impressive. Hat off to your technical abilities Boubul.

Now if one of you can package this in a consumer friendly way which us non-geeks can understand and use it will be great. Willing to compensate.

Willing to pay for something like this that is as close to plug and play as possible. 

Monitoring interface sorted. 

Now the real difficult part starts by setting up user interfaces to enable changing the configurations entities through a web page, this should allow it to operate then as a plug and play solution.

On 2020/09/10 at 6:27 PM, ManiLow said:

As a side project, I developed a semi-realtime dashboard using some open source components and some custom software that I wrote.

My current setup is the following:

I have a 8kW sunsynk inverter and 10kWh revov batteries.

have a program running on a raspberry pi 2 that polls the wifi (solarman) dongle on my 8kw inverter. It writes the inverter data to json files every 30 seconds. I then have another program that uploads the json payloads to a google cloud server (on their free tier) running grafana and influxdb. I have most of the google cloud stuff on a docker image, so I can move it quickly to another server if I see the server isn't handling the loads. I then created the following custom dashboard in grafana:

I'm still trying to pin down what information is useful, so it's still a bit of a work in progress. I have to see what other battery info there is on the inverter, but for now I'm just interested in the soc & voltages.

My next steps are to connect my pi to the can port (rs485 is occupied) and try and get the same info, but I'm not sure how that's gonna work. The rs485 port is unfortunately connected to the batteries, so I can't go that route.

 

Hi @ManiLow, How did you connect to the wifi dongle? I have tried many solutions based on the XTheOne projects as well as others, but I just can't seem to get any responses from the logger. Would you be inclined to share your source code specifically wrt the comms to the logger?

While I cannot get any data from the wifi, I am also trying to connect using RS485. You don't possibly have the pinouts for the RJ45 connector on the RS485 side? 

 

 

On 2020/09/26 at 10:44 PM, JustinSchoeman said:

Not much to decoding it. Sunsynk sent me the protocol document on request and it is dead simple.  Here is the code I use for reading the inverter:

https://github.com/justinschoeman/SmarterLoad/blob/master/tx/sunsynk.h

@JustinSchoeman, would you have the RS485 RJ45 pinouts on the SunSynk ? It seems that there is no general standard. 

19 minutes ago, xmorph3u5 said:

@JustinSchoeman, would you have the RS485 RJ45 pinouts on the SunSynk ? It seems that there is no general standard. 

Browse back in the thread:

https://powerforum.co.za/topic/6875-software-for-sunsynk-pylontech-combo/?do=findComment&comment=84414

On 2020/09/28 at 10:56 AM, JustinSchoeman said:

It is in the manual (just note that the table is incorrect - the trace labeling in the diagram below is correct):

Thanks!! 

 

So a minor update on the progress.  The initial prototype was done using a Pi Zero to see if it would be feasible (lowest cost option).  After running it for a week I have noticed that it has slowed down drastically and would not be feasible.  Ordered a couple of Raspberry Pi 4s and will migrate the setup once they have arrived.  Will run the system for another week on the Pi4 and if all goes well then I package a unit for beta testing .

If there is anyone around the Centurion area with a SunSynk inverter that would be willing to run a test once the system is ready, please drop me a PM

Pity I'm in CT. 

Have an 8kw sunsynk with 8.54kwp of panels. 

The display on the inverter does not record more than 50kwh of pv production in a day. I had my first 50kwh day on Sunday and it just stopped recording the last 2kwh on the display and on the Solarman app. 

Would be interested to know if this would still pick up the pv generation over 50kwh.

Edited October 13, 20205 yr by Achmat

20 minutes ago, Achmat said:

Pity I'm in CT. 

Have an 8kw sunsynk with 8.54kwp of panels. 

The display on the inverter does not record more than 50kwh of pv production in a day. I had my first 50kwh day on Sunday and it just stopped recording the last 2kwh on the display and on the Solarman app. 

Would be interested to know if this would still pick up the pv generation over 50kwh.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm currently reading the daily PV production value from the Inverter's values but can change this to a calculated field based on the solar load figures.  Will run a test to see how they would compare.

On 2020/10/13 at 12:21 PM, Bloubul7 said:

Thanks for the feedback, I'm currently reading the daily PV production value from the Inverter's values but can change this to a calculated field based on the solar load figures.  Will run a test to see how they would compare.

Seems they updated my display values and it's now showing the full production announce 50kwh.

On 2020/10/06 at 4:43 PM, Bloubul7 said:

Hahaha, I would look at packaging this in the near future. 

First need to ensure that it runs the way it should and then ensure it is "fool proof".

 

Hi Bluobul

A fellow Sunsynk owner managed to log into the Sunsynk supplied WIFI logger.  I pasted his feedback posted on the Sunsynk forum below.  Would this assist in anyway for your custom monitoring project?  Does it indicate that one may be able to do away with having to use a Raspberry Pi to manage the data/transfer?

 

"Hi folks, somewhat related, I noticed the data logger listens on port 80/http, and has a web UI, and allows doing config for the data logger. First, it has default password of admin:admin.

Hehe, um, this is exactly why I have proper wifi setup with my IoT stuff on a seperate VLAN and wifi SSID. IoT things aren't that secure. Anyhow, noticed you can at least change the admin console HTTP password for it to something a little less guessable than admin:admin. 

There does seem to be a feature to cater for 2 servers, so if we get to know what protocol to use, we could possibly setup our own data logging receiver server.

@Bloubul7 Instead of using a Raspberry PI zero to read from the inverter, are you now considering connecting a Raspberry PI 4 via a USB to RS485 converter like the ones below?  I assume the PI 4 then also runs home assistant where you show metrics/charts.

If this is not your current plan.  Do you see any issues with going this route?

https://www.robotics.org.za/W17286?search=usb to rs485

https://www.robotics.org.za/RS485-MINI?search=usb to rs485
 

1 hour ago, pierre. said:

@Bloubul7 Instead of using a Raspberry PI zero to read from the inverter, are you now considering connecting a Raspberry PI 4 via a USB to RS485 converter like the ones below?  I assume the PI 4 then also runs home assistant where you show metrics/charts.

If this is not your current plan.  Do you see any issues with going this route?

https://www.robotics.org.za/W17286?search=usb to rs485

https://www.robotics.org.za/RS485-MINI?search=usb to rs485
 

Hi Pierre,

Does works as well.  I have discarded my Pi Zero due to being too slow.  Back on a Pi 4 with the RS485 expansion hat.

The other option which you can try as well is a RS485 to Wifi unit.  Like the one below:

https://www.robotics.org.za/USR-W610?search=rs485

I tried this route as well with success.  Much easier to integrate into home assistant

For those that are already using the RS485 port for battery connection, has anyone tried the RS232/Wifi port?

The protocol document does seem to mention it, also the solarman wifi data logger connects via this port.

 

On 2020/10/05 at 4:45 PM, Bloubul7 said:

Hi and welcome to the forum,

On the inverter side I have made use of a Raspberry Pi Zero with RS485 expansion HAT.   The inverter connects to the Pi through the RS485 port using the pinouts posted earlier

The Pi Zero has been configured as a Modbus Gateway and essentially converts to the Modbus RTU to Modbus TCP.  See link for library used - https://medium.com/@boonsanti/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-modbus-rs-485-to-modbus-tcp-ip-gateway-9ed14ce2c08e

I then have another Raspberry Pi which I use as my main Home automation server (Pi 4, 8gb ram with 256gb NVME drive).  On the server Pi I utilize Node Red to communicate with the Mod Bus relay and retrieve the specific register addresses which I want to monitor.  From there Node Red then formats the values and MQTT then values to my Home Assistant for display as well as log the values in an Influx DB for Grafana integration

 

 

Hi this is very interesting. Awesome work! @Bloubul7 can you possibly share your Node Red flows? Thanks a lot

On 2020/11/06 at 3:30 PM, Bloubul7 said:

 

Does works as well.  I have discarded my Pi Zero due to being too slow.  Back on a Pi 4 with the RS485 expansion hat.

The other option which you can try as well is a RS485 to Wifi unit.  Like the one below:

https://www.robotics.org.za/USR-W610?search=rs485

I tried this route as well with success.  Much easier to integrate into home assistant

Hi @Bloubul7

 

I managed to procure one of the units, are you able to share some of the Connection details, on device settings, and perhaps a flow?

 

Kind regards.

Are you planning on using it with Home Assistant?

On 2020/09/28 at 10:56 AM, JustinSchoeman said:

It is in the manual (just note that the table is incorrect - the trace labeling in the diagram below is correct):

Pinouts as per above, you need to use the pins as per the bottom picture

3 minutes ago, Bloubul7 said:

Are you planning on using it with Home Assistant?

Yea, , So ill just pull it via Node => Mqtt , or i guess i could node => HA.api as well

 

Home Assistant has the Modbus  protocol integrated.  The unit which you bought converts Modbus RTU to Modbus TCP.  You can use the Modbus function directly in HA cutting out the need for NodeRed.

Inverter (Modbus RTU) -> Modbus TCP -> Home Assistant

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/modbus/

Edited November 24, 20205 yr by Bloubul7

2 minutes ago, Bloubul7 said:

Home Assistant has the Modbus  protocol integrated.  The unit which you bought converts Modbus RTU to Modbus TCP.  You can use the Modbus function directly in HA cutting out the need for NodeRed.

Inverter (Modbus RTU) -> Modbus TCP -> Home Assistant

 

Thanks,

Was thinking to do it in node red, but that makes a lot of sense

Have you made a yaml layout for it yet?

7 minutes ago, Bloubul7 said:

Inverter (Modbus RTU) -> Modbus TCP -> Home Assistant

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/modbus/

Thanks, I mean have you made one of these for it yet with the sensors and so?

 

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/sensor.modbus/            <=

Unfortunately I didn't save my yaml layout when I tried out this method.

I have played around with various methods to integrate the real time data.  Currently playing around with a standalone Pi which uses NodeRed to InfluxDB to Grafana in an attempt to make a standalone package to help out members who doesn't like to tinker.  Everything is working great, however making the user interfaces fool proof to suite everybody's needs does take time (which I'm constraint with currently with yearends approaching)

Edited November 24, 20205 yr by Bloubul7